Christmas 2009, Christmas 2010

Hey not much has changed....

Zach, Kathy and I

Christmas 2009

Zach, Kathy and I

Christmas 2010

Recent Paintings

Here are some of my more recent paintings!

Here is a better picture of the 36" x 48" canvas I painted for Alyssa's apartment.

Here are some detail shots:

These two 24" x 36" canvases I painted for my Dad's office. I really like how they turned out. Here is a detail:

This 10" x 10" I did for my little brother.

This series I did for my bestie, Ashley. It is three 8" x 10" canvases. Here are individual shots.

 This painting I gave to my parents for christmas. It is either a 30" x 30" or a 36" x 36" I can't remember which. Ooops. Here is a detail:

This is a 16" x 20" painting I did for my Aunt Jooji.

 Detail:

 Details:

This series of three 8" x 8 canvases  is for my Aunt Becky's Christmas present. I still have to ship them so Becky if you see this before you get them then MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU!

This last  painting is a 36" x 48" canvas that now has a happy home at our friend Justin's.

I did another 10" x 10" painting for my Grandma but I ended up wrapping it before I got a picture. Woops! I will be painting a 20" x 20" and three 8" x 8" canvases for our friend Kyle this upcoming week. So look forward to some more pictures of new paintings!

New favorite book?

I have just finished reading the Sword of Truth series by Terry Goodkind .

Let me just say I absolutely loved the series, These may be my new favorite books. (yes more than Harry Potter) I am sad for them to be over. However, there is a new book coming out. 

The Omen Machine, that takes off where Confessor ended. I'm not sure when the release date is. March or July? But it's still something to look forward to!

I highly recommend reading them!!

Baked Three Cheese Ziti

I made this for dinner the other night. It was super tasty and real easy.

It was in one of my williams sonoma books. I altered it a bit. Here is the recipe:

1 C ricotta
2 C shredded Romano ( I used a mixture of Asagio, Parmesan and Romano)
1/2 lb or 8 oz. Fresh Mozzarella cheese
1 lb box of Ziti
1 can diced tomatoes
1 jar tomato sauce ( I go for Prego Traditional)
1/2 C chopped fresh parsley
1 small onion diced
3 cloves garlic, diced
1 egg yolk
olive oil

Preheat oven to 425. Grease a 3 qt baking dish. I used a 13" x 9" baking dish. Bring a salted pot of water to boil. Cook Ziti until al dente according to package directions.
Meanwhile in a large saucepan over medium high heat cook garlic and onion in a little bit of olive oil until onion is transparent. Add in diced tomatoes and tomato sauce.You can turn down the heat some since you just need to be heating up the sauce.

In a large bowl mix together Ricotta, 1/2 of the Romano cheese, egg yolk, and parsley.
When pasta is done drain and add to cheese mixture.
Add the mozzarella to the tomato sauce and let melt a little. When it is mostly melted add tomato sauce to the pasta and cheese mixture.
Pour pasta and sauce into baking dish. Top with remaining 1/2 of Romano cheese and drizzle with olive oil. Bake about 20 minutes until slightly brown and bubbling. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

Slacker

I'm still continuing to be a slacker! The lack of posts on here is depressing. Good news is that things are progressing! I finally have chargers for the cameras. The back office room is somewhat organized though we have no seating in there and the desk still needs to be painted. I have so many things I want to post about but no pictures with me. So stay tuned for:

• My house decked out in holiday decor (I know its past Christmas)
• Snow at our new house!
• New paintings
• Great Christmas gifts

Those are the big ones. Today Uly is getting declawed. I feel terrible for it to have to come to this but we have tried everything from a plethora of scratching posts to cutting his nails daily. We covered the couches in double sided tape, We covered the couches with blankets and tucked them in but he still gets underneath them to claw the couch. We tried the claw covers that you super glue on (which he manages to get off within 24 hrs). No punishment works on this cat either! If there is trouble to get into he will find it. I will have to take pictures of our poor couches. We are using the laser declaw method which is supposed to be less painful and an easier recovery. Poor kitty has to sleep at the vet tonight. Rocker and Setzer my families old cats were both declawed and they were still able to catch animals and everything so I think Uly will be fine. I still feel really bad about it though.

Christmas morning seemingly overnight Penguin and Uly became best friends. They play and wrestle constantly. I think Penguin ends up getting fed up with it since Uly doesn't tire or give up. He is getting big too. Hes almost 9 lbs and is taller and longer than both the other cats. His paws are huge so I know hes going to continue to grow. I'm so glad to have kitties that frolic! He loves to play with Kathy too who usually lets him do whatever he wants to her but she will play with him sometimes. So cute. I seriously could spend all day simply watching my pets. Pretty sad. When there are four of them though something is always going on.

Justin's Painting

Here is my latest creation, This is a 36" x 48" acrylic on canvas.

This is way more of a landscape than I usually do but I like how it turned out. Hopefully Justin loves it and it has found a good home in his apartment!

I can't believe how long it has been since my last post. Good news though! Janet just got me some chargers for our cameras FINALLY! I should get them today or tomorrow. Plus with Zach's new macbook pro it is a lot easier to update my blog now since I don't have to sit sideways on the couch to use my computer. Sadly the back room still looks like a war zone.

I LOVE WEST ELM

I am in love with all of these things from west elm!
Christmas is coming up everyone!
I NEED this duvet. I have wanted a nice fluffy comforter to go with my new quilt on our bed. This is similar to the one at Anthropologie but only $120 instead of $300+. I will buy this with christmas money if I don't get it... hahaha

I love glass bottles and these antiqued ones are awesome! I especially love the mint green one and the dark green ones.

 These little owl ornaments are too cute.

I forget that I don't have a Christmas tree skirt every year. My mom gave me her old one but it doesn't fit our tree stand. I actually really like this faux fur one. I think it would be super simple to make too...

I think this garland is pretty. I saw these branches with little silver leaves on them at this little shop called Shore Gallery. I really wanted them to put in a glass cylinder for the holidays but they were $65 a bunch! Bummer. I figured I could make my own with paint and normal leafy branches but I have yet to find the right thing.

Since we got new kitty he is enjoying scratching up our couches. We've tried the little claw covers and he chews them off. For whatever reason our other cats don't scratch the furniture much. So our couches are covered with blankets galore and even with 3 throws on one the other is still bare. Plus the blankets don't match the room so it looks stupid. These faux fur blankets look awesome though and I desperately want one! Like the grey. Or really any. SO COZY!

West elm also has a ton of awesome pillow covers....and guess what I have like 7 pillows that need covers. I know if Zach reads this he will say WE DON'T NEED MORE PILLOWS OR GLASS BOTTLES! But these are just so nice and sophisticated! Plus since our house all has a somewhat similar color scheme things like pillows are interchangeable between rooms. Its always nice to be able to shuffle things around.

I adore this last pillow but I think the kitties may like it as much as me. Doesn't stop me from wanting it!

I am also in need of a fresh batch of tights, and if you know me you know I pretty much wear tights daily. I prefer dresses and tights to jeans any day. Most of my favorite tights have gotten life crippling snags which turn into giant holes and runs. So most of my favorites have recently met the trash. :( So depressing every time it happens, but trust me that I got their use out of them. Minus one that I got last Christmas which I somehow managed to put a giant hole in the first time I was putting them on. Now that was sad.

Anyways I'm just dreaming about how beautiful my house would be with these wonderful things in it! And how beautiful I would be in those tights! Just kidding.

Images courtesy West Elm and Anthropologie

Best of Friends

Ulysses seems to have won over every ones hearts! (We named the new kitty Ulysses) Lurina is the only one still a little grumpy about it but she only seems to be irritated when he chases her or pounces on her. Kathy doesn't know what to do when he gets rambunctious with her. Penguin plays with him chasing him around, I am waiting for them to wrestle but they haven't gotten that comfortable yet. He was so sick and underweight when we got him. His bones were sticking out however we've been feeding him kitten food and he has gotten SO much bigger in two weeks. Its crazy. He doesn't know his name yet, I usually call him little man or Uly (yew-lee) because Ulysses seems like a mouthful. Seriously though how cute is this!?

He was super mellow and laid back when we first got him. However now that he is feeling better he has gotten way crazier. Just the normal antics of a little boy kitten though. He is a great cat though and we love him!

Halloween!

I love costumes and dressing up! I thought my costume this year was super successful. Bummer that my cameras are still lacking chargers so I had to revert to the cellphone for pics. My makeup was really good too, its a bummer you can't see it perfectly. I scared the poor lady at CVS when I went to buy lipstick...

Corkboard

My corkboard is finally complete! Thanks to Earl and Kay for giving me all those corks to use! The frame is 24 x 36. There are 540 corks used on that board! It was pretty easy too. Janet and Mike cut me a piece of 1/4" thick wood to use as the backing and I used clear drying caulk to glue them on. My original plan was going to be to use a hot glue gun but I figured that wouldn't hold good enough. I think it looks awesome though! Now if only we could complete my desk so that I could start straightening the room up....

Im still stuck using cellphone pictures. I have had no luck finding our camera chargers and no stores around carry them! Ive tried RadioShack, Best Buy, and Batteries Plus.